NFC Times Exclusive – Vodafone Group’s proxy-card NFC mobile-payments offer, which is designed to enable subscribers to add their credit and debit cards to their Vodafone Wallets as funding accounts linked to a Vodafone prepaid card stored on the SIM, has yet to be launched by any major Vodafone branch operator in Europe.

Vodafone and the chief vendor on the project, Carta Worldwide, in announcing the service in late March, said there would be at least one launch by a branch operator in Europe by the end of the second quarter. But a survey by NFC Times found that none of the five Vodafone branch operators mentioned in the March announcement as having already launched Vodafone Wallets had yet introduced the proxy card service. Vodafone Group makes products or “solutions” available, but the branches decide when or whether to roll them out. 

Spokespersons for Vodafone branches in the Netherlands and especially Germany said their telcos have no plans to support the proxy card service, while a spokesman for Vodafone UK said the telco is evaluating the service but has not set a date for any launch.